Problems with Howey Picks.

Howdy Yall, I just grabbed a pair of Howey pure Ice picks due to recommendations from multiple friends for my first gen nomics and have noticed the picks have been bouncing on swings and feeling generally very insecure even with pick weights. Am I doing something wrong here? Switching back to my old petzl Ice picks these issues disappear completely so its not entirely shit technique. My apologies for the vauge description I'm generally at a loss here.

TBH I loved my.howey picks on my x dreams but the ice howey on first Gen nomic is flippin' Terrible. Mine are gathering dust and now those tools (my partners tools now) have petzl pur ice picks. Haven't looked back, bummer. 

My experience with Howie picks they are bit thicker. Putting a file to them solved any issues.

Doubling down on Alex's thoughts. After a couple routes in the ice park I went immediately back to my X-dreams. Buddy's pur ice felt way better. 

I have had positive experiences with them. I really like the mixte picks for x dreams. They are my go-to pick so I'm used to them, way better than camp picks (although that's not saying much, those things are garbage). I'd like to try the Beartooth picks sometime . 

Glad to see I'm not crazy here, thickness doesn't seem to be the issues as they are thinner then the Ice torsion rated petzl picks( I think) . I have a couple of theories on why they might be flawed mostly the material having to much elasticity in the heat treatment allowing absorption of impact causing bounce and secondly the absolutely mind boggling decision to have the tip of the pick curve upward rather then notch down like every other pick on the market. since they seem to essentially be junk ill make some modifications and report back after ice fest! Thank you for all the Confirmation Yall! 

Mateo Duff wrote:

secondly the absolutely mind boggling decision to have the tip of the pick curve upward rather then notch down like every other pick on the market.

what? Post a pic. I’ve had multiple pairs of Howeys and I have no idea what this upward curve means

 Someone I know thinks that Howey picks on nomics were a contributing factor in his first fall on ice. He reported that compared to the stock petzl picks these picks popped out more easily, and that's what eventually sent him.

Pat Marrinan wrote:

what? Post a pic. I’ve had multiple pairs of Howeys and I have no idea what this upward curve means

Agreed. I have no idea what he was saying in that post. What is an Ice torsion pick? 

J B wrote:   Someone I know thinks that Howey picks on nomics were a contributing factor in his first fall on ice. He reported that compared to the stock petzl picks these picks popped out more easily, and that's what eventually sent him.

This sounds very plausible but it's most likely a design choice. Picks that don't get stuck in ice are a lot more fun to climb with. A lot of stock picks would not slide out of an ice placement when you pull out, but instead they would break the ice around it. That behavior may seem more secure but after you learn good technique it has no real advantage over picks that clean well. 

That said I haven't used howey's ice picks so I might be wrong here. 

NateC wrote:

Agreed. I have no idea what he was saying in that post. What is an Ice torsion pick? 

Assuming that meant T rated on a Petzl stock pick, I think some are T rated and some aren't but idk about Petzl? Im more confused about the upward turning part...

Pat Marrinan wrote:

Assuming that meant T rated on a Petzl stock pick, I think some are T rated and some aren't but idk about Petzl? Im more confused about the upward turning part...

The T rated Ice pick from Petzl is relatively thick though (3.3mm) so his comparison isn't even all that great if you're correct because he compared one relatively thick pick to another relatively thick pick. The Pur'Ice is tapered to 3mm which is where "thin" kind of starts at this point, but it's also either not rated or B rated, I can't tell from google searches. 

Pat Marrinan wrote:

what? Post a pic. I’ve had multiple pairs of Howeys and I have no idea what this upward curve means

I'm guessing it's the unusual underside of the ice pick vs the typical downward beak of all mixed (and most ice) picks. From the Howey website:

Gunkiemike wrote:

I'm guessing it's the unusual underside of the ice pick vs the typical downward beak of all mixed (and most ice) picks. From the Howey website:

I think when I got mine, soon after they came out, they only had one pick for the Nomic, which seemed to have more scallop to the end than shown above.  The beak takes a single hit to curl, which it did.  I had a Pur Ice on the other tool, and they felt similar in ice, though the Pur Ice could stand more sharpening as it didn't have such an abrupt beak.  I have no idea if it climbed mixed (fat icer here).

The main problem I've had with petzl picks is that they are really hard to clean. Maybe the howies try to remedy that...?